With the ever-increasing proliferation of mobile communication devices, there are opportunities daily for one to place a call to a cell phone number of a friend, family member or co-worker. Invariably, the conversation begins with the greeting “Hi, where are you?”. In days past, when the telecommunications network was only a wireline network, such a greeting would be considered comical—the called party was at the residence/office associated with his telephone. However, it is now often useful, if not vital information, for the calling party to know the location of a called party using a mobile communication device.
There exists various systems for determining, with extreme precision, the location of each mobile communication device. Geocoding—a triangulation method involving the use of at least a pair of mobile base stations—is a well-understood technique for ascertaining the location of a mobile telephone. Global positioning systems (GPS) have become popular in recent years and are also capable of ascertaining the location of a mobile communication device including the appropriate type of transponder.
In the past, the location information of a mobile device has been used for a variety of applications, such as determining if the device is in a location (such as a hospital) where usage of such a device is prohibited. In this scenario, incoming calls will be immediately sent to the device's voice mail system (or to another “reach” telephone number). The location information of a mobile device may also be used to inhibit the device from initiating outbound calls to “forbidden” geographic areas (i.e., the mobile device may be restricted from placing any long distance and/or international calls).
To date, however, there has not been any development or methodology for providing this location information to a calling party, who may then determine whether or not to complete the call as a function of such location information.